Water and Ice
by Citrine Griffin
Summary: AU. FairyFrost. OCs. Turns out, ice is just another kind of water. When Pitch breaks Jack's staff, he finds out he can use his powers without it. implied JackxTooth, implied ZukoxKatara and YuexMan in the Moon. No yaoi. Sorry, fandom.
1. Meetings

_Sorry for the short chapter-I wanted to get this up and see what people think of it before continuing. This is a crossover between Avatar and Rise of the Guardians. When I was watching it I was reminded of the techniques Katara uses in Waterbending, and this popped into my brain._

_This takes place two hundred years after Korra, which I haven't watched, so inaccuracies galore. The new Avatar is a female Sandbender named Avani, and all Avatar-related characters are OCs._

_AU. Jack fell through a portal when he fell into that cave, it seems._

Cold-everything was cold. In three hundred years he'd almost forgotten what it felt like, but now he remembered, and he half-wished he hadn't. He couldn't start a fire-besides his Midas-like touch, there was neither wood nor flints. He'd cleared away a shelf of rock, tossing the snow onto the ground beside him. There he set Baby Tooth, shivering, and lay down, looking up at the sky. He sighed, and his breath shone in the air, a puff of steam.

What did he have? A fairy, a broken staff. And frost. Always the frost. He'd lost his memories, his friends, his home...he truly was alone.

Iqniq breathed into her hands cupped over her face to warm them and her nose. Sokka had told her to wear gloves, but she hated the feeling. They trapped her fingers, making them clumsy, and awkward. Looking up, she saw something strange-a huge ice sculpture, like a many-fingered hand grasping at a wisp of smoke. Odd. That hadn't been there the last time she'd been here. She climbed up beside it, getting a better look.

She placed her hand against it and drew back at once-the thing was freezing, so cold it was almost burning. She glanced behind her, at the cliff rising up. Odd-it looked like something (human sized, it seemed) had been knocked against the snow there. Iqniq's short attention span drew her toward it, and, forgetting the pit in front of her, she fell.

_whew! I'm having problems describing Jack from Iqniq's view, being as she has never seen a white person before. Any suggestions are welcomed. _

_Please review!_


	2. Introductions

_Reviews! I feel so special! _

_Spider's Claw: Yes, Jack is still immortal and he can still only be seen by people who believe in him, + one very disgruntled Avatar. The Water Tribe has legends about the bringer of winter and ice and who helped the Moon teach people how to WaterBend. the next few chapters will be longer, but that seemed a good place to end. leaving you curious? MWAHAHAHA! My job is complete!_

_ArchShadow24: yes, yes it has. Been doing art, not writing. I thought I put in dividers but they seem to not have come through. No worries, I have put them in this chapter._

_Guest no.1: log in, or put in a name please? As for toohxJack, yes, it will be light. as in, very, very light. I'm fine with what you ship, I just hate the people shipping Jack and Jamie and Jack and Bunny. Because shipping a 17 year old and a 10 year old isn't pedophelia, apparently. And shipping a giant rabbit and a human-shaped ice spirit isn't beastiality. Totally. Avani and Jack will meet in the next chapter.._

_(sorry, mini rant)_

_Guest no.2: Iqniq is around 14, maybe 15. She is a WaterBender, although not a very good one. The other questions will be answered later._

_In response to a couple people wanting to know about Iqniq's name: it is a WaterTribe name, and it is pronounced ick-neek. _

_And all this talk of pairings has reminded me! this fic will feature somewhat predominant YuexMan in the Moon, and implied Zukatara. _

"Iqniq, throw in this in the ocean, wouldja?" her older brother had thrown it at her which she deftly caught. Seal bladder. Yuck.

"No," she'd told him, tossing it up and down. "You're the one that killed the thing. You do it." she threw it to him.

Sokka caught it and tossed it back. "It's a seal, not a thing. Show respect. Please? Ma wanted help tanning it."

Iqniq made a face. Tanning the sealskin or throwing the bladder away with a few prayers? She chose the lesser of two evils and got up. "Fine," she told him, heading out the fur flap. "But I'm not tanning when I get back."

So, Iqniq had left for the hole in the ice by where the ice sculpture now was. And she'd fallen into a cave.

* * *

Something crashed onto Jack that was most definitely not snow, and most definitely not a rock, waking him up. He tried to scramble out from underneath it, mostly succeeding, but his feet stuck. He grabbed his staff and leaped up, forgetting for the moment that it was broken.

It was a person, dressed in blue and fur. She looked at Jack, eyes wide. She scrambled up, still looking at him.

Jack stared back. "You...You can see me!" he did a happy leap.

"What do you mean? Of course I can see you!" now that she stood, and Jack could see her better, he saw that her eyes were strange. She was clearly Inuit, but her eyes were blue as a Viking's.

Iqniq reached out to touch the boy's hair. It was white, tinged with blue. "It's so... soft." she drew back. "Sorry."

The boy shook his head. His eyes are strange, Iqniq thought. Blue, like hers, but shaped like Avani's. "No! Go ahead-you can _see _me!" he leapt into the air, doing a summersault.

The WaterBender blinked. "Of course I can see you," she paused, looking him over. His skin was pale, like Manami's when she wore makeup, but with a blueish tinge in some places and a pink one in others, and over his entire body, not just his face. His coat was blue and embroidered in patterns from the Water Tribe, but short, and with sleeves that were loose, like Avani's. "You're Jack Frost!" she exclaimed suddenly. "You're the one who taught WaterBenders to freeze their water into ice!"

Jack blinked, having never heard this story before. Did this girl believe in a..._different_ Jack Frost? No, not if she could see him. He stood there, calculating a moment, then shook the thought from his head.

"I...guess so..." wait. His staff was broken-he held the top half out of habit. He tapped it against the wall. "Any ideas for getting out of this cave?"

the girl shook her head. "Don't you ride the wind?"

"Well, Yeah. I mean, I can, but I'd need my staff to channel my power better. It's, kind of broken."

Iqniq looked at him. "So...you can't WaterBend without it?"

Water...oh. Duh. "Not really."

Iqniq looked up. From the bottom, the cave seemed much deeper than it did at the top. "So...what are we going to do then?"

Jack looked up as well. Without his staff, the possibilities of flying up-much less carrying the girl up with him-were slim. Up probably wasn't the answer then. He glanced to his right. A sliver of light shone there.

He half leapt, half ran over there, to see what it was.

Iqniq followed, grinning. There was a narrow passage out of the cave, into another one and then it looked like, a hall. It was a tight squeeze through, but Jack fit easily, and Iqniq had only a little trouble, being wrapped in thick furs.

There was a larger cave, walled in ice with several ledges and bumps sticking out. Once could probably climb, if one had long limbs. Jack leapt up, and was halfway up before he glanced down. "C'mon!" he called. "It's be fun!"

The girl grinned, revealing a gap between her two front teeth and reached into her pocket, pulling out gloves. Jack was puzzled a moment, then realised that she, unlike him, was human: climbing ice without gloves meant freezing hands and a probability of slipping.

Iqniq climbed onto a ledge large enough to stand on, getting her bearings. Right hand up there, left hand there-feet. Biting her lip and closing her eyes, she her right foot into a small cave just large enough. Then her left leg a foot higher. Then her right hand high and more to the center. Right foot even with her left one. Let go of the left handhold and straighten her legs.

Once she'd gotten going, it was actually, kind of-fun. Iqniq just had to remember not to look down. Sokka had teased her when she was little for being scared of heights, and she'd never grown out of it. He didn't understand, he was always the one to put the last block of ice in when they made their winter igloos, first to the top of that really steep hill.

Actually, thinking about her brother made her feel better. He'd be teasing her if he were here, constantly berating her. She'd show him. She was no scaredy-cat.

"Hurry up, slow-poke!"

Yep, there he was. Iqniq glanced up, expecting to find the bright blue eyes set in a golden brown face, only to find that it wasn't Sokka, but Jack. She stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm coming!" she called and scampered up quickly, being a foot from the top when-

Her foot slipped, a chunk of ice knocked loose and fell down. No, not now, not now, not now-

She tried to shove her other foot deeper into the indent, only to find that it was smaller than she'd thought. Her foot hit hard rock, and slipped out, throbbing.

Iqniq was now hanging from a sheer ice cliff with only her hands.

* * *

Jack watched as the girl slipped. He still had the top of his staff (why, exactly? H hadn't grabbed the bottom half-why?) which he held out for her. "Grab it!"

her eyes widened. "B-but..."

Something triggered in his memory. He felt like he'd been in this position a long time ago, and he'd suceeded. What had he done? He wracked his brain, but nothing came up.

"Grab it," he told her. "I'll haul you up."

Hesitantly, she reached up and grabbed it with one hand.

"Good," he coaxed. "now the other. Come on.."

As soon as she'd grabbed on, and closed her eyes, he flung the staff over his side, over the snowbank behind him. The girl followed, eyes wide, and crashed in.

* * *

Iqniq found herself laying in a snowbank, the concerned, pale face of Jack Frost, winter spirit looking over her.

She got up, brushing her coat off. "I've had enough of crashing into snow for one day," she commented. "Thanks."

He grinned at her. "It's part of what I do," he told her. "Now, if I go around saving your life-I guess I should know your name. It's fair, I suppose, since you know mine." he held out his hand.

Iqniq looked at it a moment, then shook it, meeting him in the eye. "Iqniq. Of the Southern Water Tribe."

* * *

_...Aaaand so they meet. I was having trouble describing Jack, because Iqniq, being from the Avatar 'verse has never seen a white person before, though she has seen Middle Eastern people(Avani is a SandBender, form the desert in the Earth Kingdom, I imagine them as similar to the Bedouin), so I started out with that as a springing board. Let me know how I did._


End file.
